Big Block Mode by UnitedFailures
We’re going Big Block Mode!
Big Block Mode is another take on the tetromino puzzler where YOU build the blocks that get sent down the main playing field.
Your goal is to setup yourself up success during the big block build phase by building the blocks the go into the queue to be placed into the main playing field. Sound easy? Not so fast, the timer is against you and every 10 seconds you will switch between the builder and main stages. If you run out of time, all the remaining, unplaced blocks will fall in the main stage randomly, further adding to the time crunch.
Good luck and let us know your high scores!
Controls
A, Left Arrow: Move block left
D, Right Arrow: Move block right
W, Up Arrow: Rotate block
S, Down Arrow: Lower block faster
Space: Send Block to Bottom
Left Mouse Click: All other UI elements, including Big Block Build Order reordering
Other mechanics
- In the builder phases, all unplaced blocks will get randomly assigned to fall during the big block build phase
- In the main phase, all unplaced blocks that are left will get placed down randomly.
- You can reorder the blocks you create in the worker phases using the arrows on the right side of the build order UI panel.
- The progress bar at the top shows which stage you are on in the cycle. Before the yellow bar are builder stages. The stage after the yellow bar is the main phase.
- There is distinct music to help differentiate between the build and main phase.
Rating Note
For LudumDare ratings, refer to the original versions below. Otherwise, check out our improved 1.1 game version to see a slightly more refined version of the game.
v1.1 Changes (10/10/21)
- Added a grid background
- Added animation to countdown timer
- Added animations when switching between the build phases and the big block build
- Unconnected blocks will fall all the way down independent of each other
- Tweaked difficulty curve
Credits
Credit to Universal Sound FX and Ultimate Game Music Collection for the music and sounds used in the game.
| Version 1.1 | https://unitedfailures.itch.io/big-block-mode |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/big-block-mode |
Ratings
| Overall | 299th | 3.797⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 306th | 3.689⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 67th | 4.081⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 197th | 4.081⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 517th | 3.722⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 560th | 2.883⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 689th | 3.333⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 72🗳️ | 56🗨️ |
Maybe with a little more time between stages, it would be even more enjoyable.
Really good use of the theme, but could be tuned even better in the future experimenting with the time available. Well done!
For the future we have ideas to rework the UI and tweak the difficulty so it's not as tied to the theme of every 10 seconds haha.
Had a blast though, and I like the visuals & music; it's all cohesive and create a nice atmosphere! Like @danield said, it would make a great app!
It was hard to 'play well', but it has promise!
I noticed you mentioned that you've added animations to the timer which I do find nice but I would recommend experimenting with the placement of that timer. I found that it was too high up and my eyes are focused on the bottom of the screen trying to find the best placement, so I didn't even see the timer until my second playthrough. You have lots of space under the high score menu (which I'd argue is less pressing information than your time left) and it may be better suited there. But that's something you can playtest to confirm if players find it better.
Otherwise you have a really solid spin on traditional Tetris that I think people would really enjoy! Great work
Now about the game. I've been a bad Tetris player since childhood, ever since Dr. Mario, but I liked the idea. It diversified the mechanics, but I didn’t have enough time :)
We hope others will still be able to enjoy the quality-of-life improvements in v1.1 that are all based on the awesome feedback we received so far!
@adecon The consequences can be disqualification from the final rankings, at the discretion of the LD organizers. This is a competition after all, and the space for free-form iteration on a casual entry is the Extra category. Post-jam builds are encouraged and loved, but they should be clearly marked as such to not get in the way of the competitive integrity of Ludum Dare.
But I really like the concept! I will definitely play this game more often! :)
I think it's neat that the line clears count even while building the block. That was somewhat unexpected, but also can lead to some interesting "big blocks." :smile:
I think that really trying to strategize is where this game becomes lots of fun. Desperately trying to count columns from the left and the right, looking for matching spots, finding an opportunity for a row clear that happens to line up with the current chaos... it's fun even though I am bad at Tetris. I think that's great.
But it was quite hard as well. ;) Since the blocks were so big, I wasn't always able to rotate them, which was a pity. Also, sometimes I wished the blocks would spawn higher/above in the level, because with a very long block, I was game over while I had still room to place it.
Frequently I was gameover, without seeing what happened. Maybe it would be nice to see the tower that you made in the background. Some more feedback of when the timer is running out would be nice.
The graphics are nice and clean, and the music fits nicely. Since you opted out for music, I think you didn't create it yourselves. Could you perhaps add some credits in your description?
I played quite a few times, this was my highscore (I played the original version):
Would be nice if the big bloc had a grid overlay so it would be easier to judge where the current blocks will fit in.
Great work would love to see this fleshed out into a bigger project.
Would be nice if the big bloc had a grid overlay so it would be easier to judge where the current blocks will fit in.
Great work would love to see this fleshed out into a bigger project.
The idea of building a chunk and then adding the chunk as a single block to a persistent "main" scene is kind of neat. The fact that you create multiple chunks before placing them confused me as it seemed like it made things more complicated without really changing how I play. I never wanted to reorder them, and I always wished I could just place my big chunk right away.
I had a hard time counting to compare distances between the current board and The Big Block board. The grid that you added in the postjam version probably helps a lot on that front. In addition to the 1x1 grid, it might be nice if the middle vertical gridline was marked in bold, or that I could measure distances like "1 to the right of the center" instead of "4 from the right edge".
I often ran out of time without realizing how low the timer was. It might have been nice to have an audio clip play as the clock gets low, or maybe to put the timer at the bottom of the screen so that it is closer to where I am looking. I also think that I often ran out when trying to use S to move my block downwards faster, as it takes 2+ seconds even when holding S down. Given the 10 second time limit, I would like to be able to drop to the bottom with S in around half a second.
One relatively minor thing is that sometimes when a block or chunk was near the edge of the board it wouldn't let me rotate it.
Other than miscounting distances, I had fun and think it is a neat twist that changes how you think about the game. I really like that you can rotate your chunks as you are adding them, so you can assemble a big chunk with a specific shape on top and then rotate it 180 before placing it in the main scene so that it fits perfectly.